


The Howling of Ghosts

by Raptorspring



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Derek Hale, BAMF Stiles, Canon-Typical Violence, Friendship, Ghost Laura Hale, Ghosts & Spirits, Hurt Derek, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Allison Argent/Scott McCall, Musician Derek, Pack Dynamics, Sin-eater Derek, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-05-31 21:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15127952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raptorspring/pseuds/Raptorspring
Summary: Derek's life was shattered and reshaped when he was fifteen years old. After the tragedy and betray that killed his family, he accepted Paige's deal to remain in the world of the living, changing not only his life but his very nature.Now he's back where all started, with his sister's ghost at his heels trying to solve whatever is tying her to the world of the living so she can move on before is too late, while dealing with a rogue alpha, a newly turned werewolf and the unexpected support of one very loud Stiles Stilinski.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been in my mind for a while, so I would like to share it with you. Please note that I don't have a beta reader, so any mistakes you see, please feel free to point them out so I can do better. 
> 
> Currently this story is in progress, with the next chapter being edited to be published and so on, and while it's plot heavy, the Sterek is very real. Without further ado, please enjoy!

Derek's life was shattered and reshaped when he was fifteen years old. 

As a born werewolf, he was taught life from a different perspective, with each experience learnt to coexist between the aspects of his uncanny nature and those that tied him to humanity. Growing up as such, there were parts of his life that, with all due honestly, didn't surprised him. He just learned to accept them, reluctantly or not.

Of course, acceptance didn't come with ease. The fact that he had accepted, a long time ago, that the tragedy of losing his first love lead to the reshaping of his life to what is was today, didn't mean that he found any comfort in it. Consolation, perhaps, but not comfort.

Not that anyone care to ask him about it, but still.

Derek leaned against the Camaro, watching the town line in silence, his eyes tracing the letters of the _Welcome to Beacon Hills_ sing with a blank face, not showing the anxiety threatening to choke him. He wanted to scream, be angry, but all he managed was to sigh softly.

"I'm sorry," the melodic voice of his first love said again, one too many unnecessary apologies wrapped in the coldness around her. "I'm really sorry, Derek."

He blinked slowly, turning his face slightly to the left, were Paige's ever young petite figure showed up beside him after hours of silence on the road. She was twisting the cuffs of her long sleeve white dress over and over, a habit she had developed months after she stopped breathing.

"I felt it," he said out loud, confident that there was no one around to see him, saying the words to confirm the fact, even if Paige had seen him broke down in the middle of the street back in Manhattan, saying it felt like making it real, "It was… like _that_ day, it hurt just the same."

Paige licked her lips, closing her eyes. Her image shivered and then refocused, once she reopened her eyes, they were shinny with unshed tears, "I… I know where she is."

Derek nodded, accepting and resigning to the fact that his older sister and Alpha was dead, her spirit still wandering the place where her life was taken, perhaps ignorant of the fact she was not alive anymore. He couldn't tell, but he had seen it happen before, not with his own childhood love, but he had seen people cross paths with him, unaware of their own condition.

Paige had been an entirely different event and the memory of the event was a recurrent nightmare of Derek, always able to see her but never able to help her.

His hand twitched, feeling the cold phantom touch of Paige's fingertips on the back of his hand. Derek looked at her glowing violet eyes, imposing her mood around him. She knew were Laura's spirit was wandering while Derek would find her body, and just like after the fire, he might have to tell another loved one they are not part of the world of the living anymore.

Penance, perhaps, for killing his first love, but one he had come to accept a long time ago.

"Okay," he said to the silent question in Paige's gaze, "Let's… let's find my sister."

Paige closed her eyes and then he was alone on the side of the road once more. Derek gave himself another minute before climbing into the driver's seat and finally crossing the town line to the place that once he called home.

It was like an old wound that never healed being torn open once again. His senses slowly but surely got overwhelmed with the scents and sounds of a place that used to be part of his every day, a place that once held everything relevant for the most part of his life.

It had been naïve, perhaps, to think that leaving Beacon Hills would be enough, but for a few years, a part of Derek thought that he could fully move on.

"I should have come with her," he gripped the stirring wheel, close to popping out his claws, "I was her beta, I should have been with her."

No one answered, and Derek closed his eyes. He knew Paige was in the back seat, he could feel her even if she was not visible at the moment, the could give her away.

"You know it's true."

The cold shifted and Paige answered, "There is no one to blame but the one who took her life, Derek, no one else."

It was an old argument; Derek's responsibilities as Laura's beta versus having a life besides being Laura's beta. She had been a sister to him, a guardian, a protector more than the traditional role of an alpha, because at the time Derek didn't need an alpha, he needed his big sister. They were fine, for a while, until they weren't.

"She ordered you to stay," Paige reminded him, "Commanded it."

Derek scolded, "My place was at her side… now she's gone and…" he cracked his neck, his eyes shinning steel blue, "And there's someone else whispering."

He could feel it, the closer he got to Beacon Hills the stronger the whisper got. The call of an Alpha to his inherited beta. Derek's power was tied to someone he didn't even know, his sister's murderer, and he wanted nothing to do with it, yet he couldn't break the bond and stay away, he had to give Laura closure, he had to fix whatever was started.

Sunset transitioned into night, and by the time Derek arrived to the Preserve, the woods were already dark and ready to cover his tracks if necessary. It felt wrong to act as an intruder in what used to be his home, but with the gravity of the situation and the possible danger looming over him, his actions were more about cation than anything else.

Watching his childhood hit him like a whole new waive of pain that his expression didn't reflect. He kept a blank face as he walked the steps and pushed the door open. The smell of smoke and decay clogging his nostrils with a force that almost had him retching right there.

Derek filtered out the old scents and found the traces of Laura in the house. A few of her things were scattered around the space the used to be the living room. Slowly, he reached for the red sweater she had left folded by the duffle bag containing the few things she took with her before taking a one-way ticket to California from New York.

He pressed the sweater against his nose, then carefully packed the sweater inside the duffle bag, were the scent would remain longer. Derek stood up and gave himself a few more minutes before going outside and look for his sister, knowing he was going to find a dead body instead.

Outside, by the tree-line, Paige's glowing violet eyes scanned the shadows and trails left by the living, and the dead. 

***

The woods were alive, even in dead. The place was full with whispers, shouts and howls along eerie movements that made Derek's head hurt. With each step he heard something, with a couple more he could see the silhouettes dragging themselves in incorporeal shapes with no feet touching the ground. Pale figures oozing with blood in their broken features or another kind of evidence on them about their condition.

All of them were nothing more than echoes now, so he diverted his attention from them towards the night and the scent of his sister.

There was pain in the air, and the bitter tang of fear lingering across the leaves splattered with blood. It would be a lie to say Derek was expecting to find Laura alive, but until that moment he hoped to be wrong. He hoped the pain of losing a pack member – his alpha – was only in his head. Derek was not above contemplating insanity if that would let him find Laura alive.

But no, just like the fire, the whispers were truths thrown at him, wrapped in facts and the cold bite of misery in his chest. Derek found Laura, and he found her in pieces.

"Is she still here?" he asked out loud, his eyes fixed on Laura's dead ones. "Tell me."

There's silence and Derek wanted nothing more than to scream. His heart was pounding so hard it was the only thing he could hear in his ears. "Tell me," he repeated and the air around him got colder, his breath coming in puffs in under the moonlight.

There was no noise, no rustle, but Paige was there besides him, her eyes trailed to her left, watching the woods with a violet glow in them.

"She could be wandering," Paige answered. "You might be able to find her before she gets to her door."

"She wasn't at the house," Derek noted.

Paige asks, "You think that's were her door will show up?"

He shrugged, it wouldn't be the first time a door to the afterlife appears in the Hale House. It just pains him that it has to be his sister's, the only person at his side after the fire.

There's a scent around that doesn't belong to Laura, more than one. He inhaled, taking into the scent of blood and the beginning of decay, as well as the scent of rage and confusion, mixed with fear and something else.

The wolf that killed his sister and robbed her of his power also attacked someone else. He looked around, for the reeking of fear that wasn't Laura, no… she had been… angry? Confused?

"Here," Paige was standing several feet away from Laura's body, pointing at the ground with a blank expression.

Derek adjusted the backpack at his shoulder and walked over Paige, his senses on Laura's body. He was letting the situation keep his grieve at bay for he couldn't afford to break down at the moment, he knew what this was, the gruesome murder of his sister was being used as bait for him to come to Beacon Hills, and now that he was there he had to be careful to not follow hi sister's steps.

There was an inhaler on the ground, partially hidden amongst the leaves. It carried the scent of the other person near Laura's body. This was the pulsing bond he felt, the omega had Laura's alpha power, it had inherited Derek as a beta by association, and felt compelled to bite someone else to form a pack.

Derek was _not_ going to live under the alpha responsible for his sister's murder, he _refused_.

Still, there pulsing bonds could be used as an advantage. Laura's dead had the trade marks of a hunter's attack, the horrible and degrading signature of jacking the body in half, and it he was not able to feel the other Alpha, he would have believed them to be responsible. But there was the fact of this omega in town, running around with Laura's stolen power, and a recently bitten someone, probably still in process of his body adjusting to the changes, if Derek's calculations time wise were correct.

He didn't have time for this.

Derek looked over his shoulder, to his sister's dead body and all sense of logic was put to a halt.

He pocketed the inhaler and walked back to Laura, holding his breath to keep her scent in his memory and not the decay that was already taking over. He apologized over and over while taking things from his backpack to take her away, he couldn't just leave her to the scavengers.

She deserved better.

***

"Your fingers are bleeding."

The air around Paige was always cold, but Derek was used to the shift in temperature around her, so even if he had been alone a second before in the house, he didn't startle at her sudden appearance. Instead, he kept playing, his torn fingers sliding over the string on the cello with the same precision as if nothing had happened.

 _Love Story_ was Laura's favorite song for him to play, he did so more time than he could remember because she would always smile at him while listening. Sometimes, she would even join him with the lyrics. He wasn't particularly fond of the song; the melody was too haunting, too sad to bring the sentiment it was aiming for. He supposed it was fitting, for the story the song was attached to was a tragedy.

He ignored Paige's comment, knowing the blood was staining the cello and the strings digging into his open wounds, but he cared little about it. The physical pain was a welcomed distraction from the sorrow that was threatening to drown him.

Derek spend the entire night weaving wolfsbane to the ropes he was planning to use in tying Laura's body in her wolf form, he was going to use more to make weights, but for now her sister's body rested behind the house, Derek hoped to get it whole to give it proper burial. 

"I'm sorry," he said was he played the last bars of the song, "I'm so sorry Lor…"

There was another shift in temperature. Paige's eyes shone violet and she gasped, then she vanished.

" _Love means never having to say you're sorry_."

Derek dropped the bow getting up the chair and loosely holding the cello while Laura stood a few feet behind him. She was trying to smile at him and failing. She twisted the sleeves of her jacket and licked her lips, trying to show herself at ease to him but her watering eyes and the pain in her posture wouldn't let her.

"That's the only part of the movie that stuck with me, besides the song," she said, her breath shaky, "It's… it's a nice song, I love when you play it."

He let the cello rest on the chair and walked up to his sister. The cold around her was near the freezing point and Derek was not sure he would be able to touch her.

"Laura, are you—"

"Dead?" she asked, the tears finally running down her face. Her bright red lipstick and her combed hair were a mismatch for her situation, but Derek supposed that if she was to linger, she wouldn't do it in torn and blood-soaked cloths. "Yes… Yes I am."

He couldn't decide if it was a relive or another misfortune for his sister to be aware of her situation. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a like relived, for he didn't have to be the one to tell her she was no longer part of the world of the living.

"I'm sorry Derek," she whispered.

He pulled into his inner strength and held her, her form physical enough for him to do so. She was cold, colder than Paige, but he held onto her anyway, his lips brushing over her hair as the room's temperature kept on dropping around them.

"I should've been here," he said.

Laura shook her head, "I'm not sorry about that, it was safer for you to stay in New York," she said. "I'm sorry about everything else… about _this_."

She motioned to herself and around them. Derek frowned, unsure of why she was apologizing and it noted in his expression, so she continued, "I knew you weren't lying, when you said you could see _things_ … but I was never sure if... if it was because something was following you or…"

"Or because I was insane."

"I'm sorry."

He kissed her hairline, "Don't—it's fine, it doesn't matter."

Laura closed her eyes and stepped out of her brother's embrace, "You're shaking, I'm too cold."

"Lor…"

She held a hand high, the gesture she would always use to when she needed him to listen. Their mother used to do the same, perhaps it was the reason why she picked up the gesture and Derek compelled with the silent request most of the time.

"I can't remember my dead," she said. "I stood on the forest, hiding from the cops but… I noticed the dogs would act strange but never actually found me… until they did… they found part of my body and I just knew that the time I'm missing is the time of my dead.

I walked up to the cops and they couldn't see me. I even screamed at them but nothing, just… nothing… it was really annoying."

She laughed then, running her hand over he hair as if the being a ghost was nothing more than an inconvenience. Derek sighed, and a something close to a smile formed on his face, Laura was acting like herself, even after everything, he had the chance to have something good as his sister's last memory instead of the haunting look on her dead eyes.

His curse had to have at least a few advantages.

The cello was playing again, the wood creaking as the cold pulsed around Derek. Laura looks over the chair were Derek knew Paige is playing something classical and probably making a point of how Derek can't nail those notes as well as she does.

"Paige?" Laura asked as Paige stopped playing, the bow dropping from her hand while her eyes glowing violet subside to her natural hazelnut color.

"Laura," she greeted with a smile, "I would have liked for our encounter to be less on my side and more on Derek's, I am sorry for your loss."

She left the cello over the chair. The instrument was now covered in frost and Derek would probably have to tune it again after the strings start dripping the water from were Paige's fingers froze them and his own blood crystalized, but he's more than used to it.

Laura walked over Paige and after a moment of hesitation, they embrace. The expression on Laura's face tells Derek more than words. She understands that Paige is just like her and watching them is the only way he can tell, neither have a scent. He might be used to that from Paige but not from Laura, and it pains him to have his sister like this, close and yet very far.

Derek decided to distract himself once again by taking the cello. He pulled a cloth from the case and started drying the polished wood from the frost and tested the string to check if he needed to replace them. He felt the need to play until his mind wander away from his sister's dead, the Hunters and the rogue alpha.

"I—" Derek swallows, Laura was sitting beside him on the floor while Paige watched from the chair, her expression sad as she observed the siblings. "I need you to remember Laura… I need to know what happened."

"You mean, the details," she insisted. "Because you already know what happened, otherwise you wouldn't have torn you hands lacing wolfsbane to present your respects."

Derek closed his eyes, stopping the motions of cleaning the cello, and looked to his slowly bleeding hands. Laura's hand hovered over his, the cold dancing around her fingertips, but she was not able to touch him this time, she was not strong enough.

"I don't know what to do," he admitted and pulled out the inhaler from his jacket. "There's a rogue alpha running around and... and new beta, I think, I can feel them, both of them."

Laura frowned and her expression filled with anger, "No! You're _not_ part of my murderer's pack!"

The room shivered under her rage, a few things exploded around them. Paige looked alarmed and ready to act but Derek lifted a hand, asking her to let him handle this one. Derek concentrated and managed to touch Laura's shoulders.

"No, I'm _not_ ," he assured her. "I rather become an omega than fall under that alpha's command."

Laura didn't look completely convinced, but it did ease her anger to stop projecting her anger in physical form. Even if she was not as learnt as Paige of her nature, that didn't make her any less of an angry ghost making herself clear by edging towards the poltergeist side of the spectral territory. 

"The alpha…" her voice shuddered, "The alpha will try to get a pack, it needs a pack and—"

Suddenly, Laura's eyes shone violet and her figure disappeared. Derek looked around but Paige was still there, also looking for Laura.

"What happened?" he asked and Paige remained silent for a long moment.

"Her memories are scattered, she's unstable, maybe she can't hold being corporeal for too long yet," She was talking from experience. It had been more than six years, but Derek wuld never forget how her haunting began.

"Can you find her?" he asked, his tone hopeful.

Paige nodded. "Yes, it will take me sometime, If I don't show up that's why," she stood straight and ready, but decided to look at Derek before continue, "Don't—"

"What?"

She gives him a knowing look, "Don't do anything stupid."

Paige vanished again before he could say anything to defend himself, leaving Derek alone in a too cold house with a frozen and bloody cello, the scent of ashes clogging his nostrils, and a far too heave silence.

***

Derek used to like walking around the Preserve, it was something she shared with his family. Running with his sisters had always been about working as a unit, or at least that was what their parents wanted them to reach. His cousins were energetic and the older ones would be around him at all times when he was a kid, making sure he didn't get lost or stumbled into something he shouldn't.

But it was his uncle Peter who would watch over him most of the time. Being a teenager when Derek was just a kid, it was obvious he wasn't very fond of the idea of being the defacto babysitter for his sister's pups, but Talia would always tell him it was all members of the pack responsibility to watch over the little ones.

Peter, ever sarcastic and way over his head, was there for him more often than not. It had been comforting to know that if he needed him, Peter would come. Now it was not the case, Derek was not even sure there was anything left of Peter for him to reach, and the guilt he felt by leaving him behind was still present, even with the monthly reports and Laura's updates, the fact that they could do nothing for him was something Derek was never able to stop thinking about.

He wondered if the alpha knew about Peter's existence and feared for his safety.

Derek was still deep in thought, planning a visit to his far-gone uncle, when he heard them; Two teenagers walking around the woods, one of them carrying the scent of the beta he vaguely felt across the weak pack bond. 

What they were doing here?

"This is private property," he said with not once ounce of sympathy and the beta looked at him funny, but it was the other teen who looked vaguely apologetic, even if he was lying about not knowing about the property being private.

He, however, wasn't lying about the inhaler.

Derek took the medicine from his pocket and held it for them to see, he tossed it to the beta with no words of explanation and decided to leave. He was turning when Laura showed up with Paige, almost on his face, not that he would have collided with them – both being mostly ethereal and all – but still, it startled him a little.

"Derek, talk to them," Laura motioned to the teens, then asked to Paige, "That's him, isn't he?"

She studied them for a moment, "Yes, the one with longer hair."

There was a clear disadvantage to Derek being able to see ghost when most people couldn't: he couldn't talk to them without looking like a crazy person. He sighed heavily, half turning back towards the younger men, the one with shorter hair in particular looked… really nervous for some reason.

"Can I help you with anything else?" he asked with a polite tone, behind him Paige giggled while Laura looked proud of herself.

"No, we, I mean, is just—" he teen with a buzz cut lip his lower lip, "Hale, right? Derek Hale?"

Derek blinked a couple times, "Yes."

"I'm Stiles, this is Scott, nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said in automatic. He was trying to keep his gaze on the living people and not his older sister walking around the teens with a curious expression while Paige studied her nails.

Laura made a face. "I hate this, I can't smell them at all, it's making me anxious," she pointed out, frustrated.

Paige shrugged, "I've never been a werewolf so I wouldn't know, but I can relate to some other things."

At this point, Derek couldn't talk back to them without giving himself away. In New York he would talk to Paige on the street because frankly, people didn't pay much attention to others in such a crowded place. Here thought, here there were less spirits and more danger.

"There's an investigation going on," Stiles said, taking a few steps closer while Scott gave him a dubious look, "You wouldn't happen to see… anything or something?"

He didn't want to answer and he was prepared to lie his ass off when his eyes quickly shifted to Laura.

"Be nice, you can't help this boy if you don't," she reminded him, "Please, Derek? For me."

Even if she was no longer breathing, Laura knew exactly what to do and say to convince him. It was such a sister tactic he almost felt compelled to ignore her just on principle, but this was Laura and he just wasn't used to ignore her.

"No, I just—" He didn't want to talk, but he closed his eyes and did it anyway, "My sister is missing," he said, reluctantly. "We don't live here anymore, but she was coming over, she left me a voice mail a few days ago letting me know she was here and I haven't heard from her since."

Stiles pressed, "You think—?"

"I hope not," he said, even if he already knew the dead body was indeed his sister's, "But there's an investigation, the body they found it's a woman and my sister is missing."

Scott looked possibly heartbroken, "I'm sorry, I hope your sister's safe."

"H-Hey my dad's the Sherriff, may be knows something, I could ask?" Stiles looked uncomfortable and unsure but there was no stumble in his heartbeat. "Is there a missing person report already?"

"No, but I—"

Laura gave him an appealed look, "Oh my god Derek, you know I'm dead anyway, get the damn report done before something else happens!"

Paige looked unimpressed, "Told you."

Derek bit his lip, avoiding looking at either of them, "I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary…"

Stiles winced, "I understand but, dude, it's important, they can help."

Derek glared at him, and Stiles stepped back a little, he was ready to just leave when Laura cuffed him in the back of the head, making him shiver due the cold. Derek glared at the floor, calming himself down and then nodded.

"Okay."

For some reason, Stiles looked like he had just won something.

***

Derek didn't like police stations, for several reasons. The most prominent one being the association of the place with the night his family was killed. He spent far too much time there, holding hands with Laura as the deputies and the Sherriff tried to make sense of the situation. It wasn't a day he liked to remember, but it was sealed in his memory and it never stopped hurting.

Laura couldn't hold his hand now, and she looked as pained as Derek was pretending to not be for the same reason.

"His family died like, I don't know, five, ten years ago?" Stiles was not in the same room, he was outside the Sherriff's office with Scott, but the distance didn't prevent Derek from hearing due his amplified senses, "The fire, do you remember the fire Scott?"

"Yes, but—"

"And now here's back and his sister is missing," Stiles continued and Derek should really stop listening, "That's… that's gotta be rough."

"How do you know him, anyway?"

"I—I don't, it's just—" Stile made a weird sound, "Well, his name is in a few trophies at the school and the music room, I was curious!"

He refocused his senses when the Sherriff, that happened to be Stiles' father, asked him a question. He looked back at him dazed, unsure of what to say and the man noticed.

"When was the last time you spoke with your sister?" he repeated, gently.

Derek looked down, "In person? She came to see me at the conservatory before leaving for the airport," and he was still kicking himself for not following her.

"You're doing it again," Laura said. She was looking him with _that_ expression, the one she did every time Derek was blaming himself, she hated it. "Stop that."

"Ten days ago," he continued. "She was calling daily but… about five days ago she didn't call, she left me a voice mail and I decided to come here, I haven't heard of her since."

"You said you drove here?"

"I don't like plains," he justified, and it was mostly true.

Sherriff Stilinski looked conflicted and Derek could tell he was piecing things together already, and from a police point of view, it looked like he might have to give Derek bad news, again. At lest this time Derek already knew what was happening and Laura was calm enough, not like his cousins in burnt clothes, scared and crying. 

Derek closed his eyes, he didn't want to remember, so he listen instead. He kept his composure when the Sherriff told him about the Jane Doe, the state of the body and the murder case. He wanted to ask what it had to do with his sister but his voice broke at the what, because right there, besides the Sherriff, Laura was looking at him with tears in her eyes and holding her abdomen as if it hurt.

"I—" Derek coughed, "Do I have—?"

Did he have to identify the body? Most likely. He knew it was Laura, he saw part of her already, but it didn't make the whole thing any less cruel. It was as if life itself was not done punishing him but the mistake he made seven years ago and once again a year after that.

"I'm sorry, son."

And Derek just slumped on the chair, feeling drained. Laura sat besides him and willed the strength to hold his hand, it was cold as ice and Derek squeezed back just as hard, ignoring the coldness.

"I—" Derek inhaled, giving himself a moment to collect his thoughts, "I was planning to check the house in the Preserve, I'm sure she went there at some point, she mentioned it in the voice mail."

Before driving from the house in the early hours of the morning, Derek collected his things, just leaving his sister's bag behind, and her body. He contemplated for a long moment just buried her like so, under a spiral to vow revenge, but he wanted her to find her door to the afterlife, and sometimes proper burial helped with that. He couldn't give her a proper burial if part of her body was still missing.

"Your old house?" the Sheriff clarified and Derek nodded, "I see."

They would find Laura's body in the back, a few of her things and nothing else. He had been careful about it, reluctantly at every step, but Laura's peace was something he could help with, while her dead was something he couldn't change.

Derek pulled out his phone to let the Sherriff listen to her sister's last voicemail.

_Hey Der, how was the concert? Call me back ASAP, I wanna hear everything. Also, I think I'm getting closer baby brother, I can feel it. I'm going to check out the house today, it just… I just need to see it… anyway, call me back, love you._

He had repeated that message at least a dozen times in the past couple of days, it wasn't enough, but hearing Laura's voice was better than nothing. Now, at his side, her spirit listening to her own voice with a sad smile.

"So much for getting closer," she mumbled, Derek held her hand tighter.

Sherriff Stilinski asked, "Can we have a copy of that voicemail?"

"Yes," Derek agreed.

"I need to ask," the Sherriff continued, "What was your sister looking for?"

Derek tried very hard to not look at Laura, "The fire… she believed she had found new information and… she wanted to check it out, make sure it was real."

"That case—"

"Somebody set our house on fire," Derek said firmly, almost flashing his eyes, "With my family inside, it was _not_ an accident."

The Sherriff kept calm, even after Derek's burst of anger. Laura gave his brother a pained look while Paige softly touched his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"I believe you," the man said. There was no blip in his heartbeat, no change in his scent. He was being completely honest, and that, more than anything, stunned Derek into silence.

***

At some point in the day, Stiles came back to his father's office holding a mug of tea and offered it to Derek, who took it without saying a word. The Sherriff was arranging to check the Hale house and Derek was preparing himself to be told they found his sister's body, even if he already knew that.

"It's, like, really cold in here," Stiles pointed out, looking around for the thermostat and fidgeting with it, "Dad usually doesn't have the office this cold."

"It's fine," Derek mumbled. "I'm used to it."

Laura raised an eyebrow and then looked at Paige who held her hands up in surrender. They were yet to catch up on the fact that she had been around in this form for far longer than Derek let anyone know or how she came to be by his side in the first place.

Stiles gave him a funny look, "The cold?"

Derek nodded. He took a sip of the tea, ignoring Paige's raised eyebrow and Laura's questioning looks, then continued, "I live in New York."

"Oh yeah, winter an all that, of course, it's colder there."

He lifted his gaze towards Stiles. The teen was fidgeting with his hands, looking around and generally not sitting still, it was as if he just couldn't stop for a moment. He smelled like curiosity and worry, there was sympathy towards him but it didn't look like pity, witch Derek was thankful for.

"So…" Stiles paced awkwardly, "Ehm… You went to the same High School that us, right?"

Derek looked at him with a blank face, "Yes."

He took another sip of the tea. Behind Stiles, Laura was giving him a disapproving look, the same she aimed at him every time he was being antisocial. Derek wasn't being deliberately rude, he just wasn't very good with words.

"That's cool, I saw your name in a few trophies, you used to play basketball, right? They won and everything, they team photo was nice, everyone looked totally happy, I play lacrosse, it's the big thing now in BHS!"

Apparently, Stiles didn't need much conversation from Derek's side in order to fill the room with chatter. It was annoying, really, but at the same time it felt… nice.

"Scott plays lacrosse as well?" Derek asked, because if he did, then there might be some complications with his new beta status.

"Yeah!" Stiles confirmed eagerly, "He was _amazing_ in practice today, I've never seen play like that before! He's totally set in playing first line this year, and, let's be real, I thought he had no chance, like, at all, we're not very good," he laughed, but Derek could tell it Stiles was unhappy with that situation it the sudden sour spike of his scent was to speak for him, "Anyway, but he might actually have a change, you know? I have no idea how he did it but I'm happy for him."

Laura huffed, "Enhanced hearing and speed do marvels to improve your performance in sports, right Derek?"

Paige giggled, and Derek tried very hard to not glare in their direction.

"So, first line," he said as casually as possible but it just made him sound kind of awkward, "You are aiming for it as well?"

Stiles did a full body shrug, "I'm a professional bench warmer, it's an art, I'm an _artist_ , master of the bench warming spot of the team," there was a bitter scent in him saying those words and Derek found himself frowning, "Dude, it's funny, I want to play, but, eh, I'm not that good, so…"

"Maybe you only need more practice," he suggested.

"Oh? Come on, I bet you were a natural in basketball," Stiles clicked his tongue, "Being the Team's Captain and everything."

"Well," he coughed, willing himself to not blush, especially with Laura cooing at him, "I… I just liked it, but I still did a lot of practice, but I—" he closed his mouth then slowly said, "Music, I was not very good with that."

Stiles frowned, while behind him Paige was looking at the floor with interest.

"Really? But I heard some recordings they have at the school— I mean, eh…" he looked embarrassed and Derek decided to not point that out.

Derek sighed softly, "I started late, but… I wanted to play the cello, I really, really wanted to… so I had to practice daily, for hours, to catch up, it wasn't easy, and I was by no means a natural, I was pretty bad to be honest."

Stiles tilted his head, "And now?"

He looked at the mug between his hands, thinking before nodding to himself, "I think I'm good enough, now."

That seemed to give Stiles some sort of comfort. Laura was looking at him with a fond expression and Paige even smiled.

"You will have to show me some time," Stiles said. "Yeah?"

"Sure."

***

Derek sat in a police cruise with a deputy outside waiting for the Sherriff to give him the nod to take Derek to identify the body of his sister. Derek looked pale and felt older than he was, with the weight of everything he knew was happening but not knowing what he could do to solve it. He didn't feel comfortable with getting the police involved, yet at the same time, after listening to his sister's phantom voice reasoning how this was _the right choice_ , he did it anyway.

"This might make things worse, Lo…" he mumbled, low enough that no one outside the car would hear him, and that was just fine because he was technically alone, not that anyone could see Laura in the backseat and Paige outside the passenger window. 

Laura sighed again, he lost the count hours ago of how many times she'd done it, "I don't want them to think of you as a suspect, it's just messy and we don't have time for that."

Her voice almost breaks and Derek has to search for her in the mirror to not give himself away, "Laura?"

She blinked and then she was sitting in the empty driver's seat next to him, "What is going to happen to me, Derek? Am I going to just stay here, like Paige?"

Outside, Paige blinked slowly and shakes her head but said nothing. Laura doesn't appear to notice, so it was up to Derek to explain. He collected his thoughts to do so. "I don't think so, at some point, you will see a door, your door to the afterlife, once you cross it, you will be fine."

"But—" Laura gestures at Paige, again, "I take she has been around for, what? Seven years?"

"Given or taken," Paige confirms, "But my case is… not the same."

Derek tried to look at his sister in the eye, but he couldn't, "I saw them, after the fire…"

Before Laura could ask about what he was talking about, the deputy opened Derek's door and asked him to follow him. At the hospital, Sherriff Stilinski looked professional but the scent around him carried sadness, knowing what Derek was about to face. 

Derek played his part, and he doesn't need to pretend to be hurt when he sees Laura's body again. He just recalled in his mind the moment he felt the connection with his alpha disappear and tries to hold himself together because it hurt so _much_. At some point he ended up back in the police cruise with the Sherriff's jacket over him in an attempt from the older man to shield him from the world.

It was a shame, that it wasn't working.

***

Derek stared blankly at the wall of the hotel room. It was not official, he wasn't being treated as a suspect in his own sister's murder, but the timing and circumstances were not helping, so he was asked to remain in Beacon Hills and one step further, he was booked in an extended stay hotel for him to do so. At least it wasn't a cell, he thought that counted for something.

The real culprit was out there, the rogue alpha who stole his sister's life for her power.

"They made it look like it was hunters," Laura's voice broke the silence in the room. Derek didn't move from where he was lying on the bed to face her, but in his awareness, knew she was at the other side of the bed as she kept on speaking, "The alpha, they made it look like hunters ended me, but… it makes no sense, they must have felt you at some point."

Derek closed his eyes, "Perhaps he didn't know—"

"An alpha without a pack? They must have known I had a pack!"

Slowly, Derek sat up, "Laura… we were hardly a pack."

The room's temperature dropped so fast it made Derek flinch, but he stood his ground, looking at his sister over his shoulder. Her eyes were shinning violet, and her image was trembling. He grimaced at the picture she made, it was not so different from when she showed her alpha eyes but at the same time, it was just… wrong.

"I'm your sister, but I was also your _alpha_ ," she hissed, "You were my _beta_ , we were a _pack_."

Derek turned to look at her in the eye, feeling the cold stare trying to freeze his soul. He ignored in favor of being reasonable, but good intentions aside, it was probably not his best move.

"I was your _only_ beta," he insisted. "I don't… you were strong, but I was supposed to make you stronger, pack is supposed to make us stronger…" he swallowed, "A single betas was not enough, Peter, he… and I was not enough to make you strong enough to—"

"To what?" she growled out of instinct, crawling over the bed to get closer to him. "Survive? We did that just fine Derek, we had each other, and that was okay," she insisted, then gestured at herself, "This? This was… a mistake, but it was not your mistake, you didn't do anything."

"I know!" he stood up, "That's the problem! I didn't do anything Laura! I didn't protect you, I didn't save you, I didn't make you a strong alpha!"

"It was not your job to protect me!" her voice made the room tremble, " _I_ was the alpha, I was supposed to protect you!" There was a crack and in electricity around them, Paige was at his side in an instant, looking ready to do something, although Derek had no idea what. "And I _did_ , it doesn't matter if you were my only beta, it was enough!"

"It wasn't!" he insisted, ignoring Paige's concerned warning looks, "If it was, then you wouldn't be dead!"

And the first thing the new alpha did was take another beta, even if the culprit had no idea who they were, alphas were not meant to be alone. Laura was supposed to have a pack to back her up. The werewolf that stole her power also clawed into Laura's bond with Derek, feeling it but deeming it not enough, thus the first thing he did was give into the need to form a pack, turning an unsuspected human.

What did that say about Derek's strength to form a pack? Nothing good.

It was better this way, he didn't want his sister's murdered as an alpha, he should be glad the pull was not hard to fight, he was. But at the same time, it made him wonder how weak was his own worth that it was not enough to give Laura the strength to survive and the new alpha was not even attempting to keep it for himself.

Pack, that was not right… what Derek and Laura had was an attempt to keep what used to be their pack, both clung to a memory of family, pack, long gone, burnt to the ground and scattered into ash, lost in the fire.

He should have insisted in Laura taking other betas, he should have… should have…

"DON'T SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT!"

Laura's roar shook the room, making the lightbulbs go out as the electricity spiked and overload the currents. The lose objects in the nightstand flung themselves around, narrowly avoiding hitting Derek. Paige was pushing him aside a moment later, her eyes bright in violet with a silver rim around them, her attention focused in Laura's angry figure.

There was blood on her clothes, gashes in her skin, dripping phantom drops all over the bedspread, her entire torso is ripped open, her fangs out and her claws broken, and Derek couldn't look at her, he can't bring himself to look at her sister edging between a ghost and a poltergeist, not her, not Laura.

Paige stood straight and the air around her rippled, pushing Derek towards the door. He questioned her with a look and Paige doesn't need to turn to look at him in the eye to know what's crossing his mind, they have very little need of words now, after years past sharing a life.

"I'll handle this," she said, her eyes locked with Laura's as she snarls and prepares to pounce, "Derek."

He's not proud of his reaction, but the thought or Laura becoming a goddamn poltergeist is just something Derek cannot stomach, so he listened to Paige and left the hotel room before his sister could slam the door to stop him.

Laura's howl made his skin crawl. It was filled with grief, pain, anger… and nobody but him could hear it, nobody.

Ghosts are not meant to remain in the world of living, Derek learnt this a long time ago, the hard way. The spirits that cling to the world of living deteriorate, their sanity tears until just the bare bones of reason remain, when a ghost reaches his point is dangerous to them, and those around them.

Hauntings, Derek read about it when he first started dealing with the unliving. A ghost that haunts is a spirit that has remain too long in the world of the living, clinging to a shattered idea of why they are here, but not fully capable of understanding it. Those spirits might not even know, or have forgotten, that there's a door waiting for them to cross, an afterlife.

Derek needed Laura to find her door, because he couldn't bear to watch his sister turn into a restless soul, on top of everything that has happened to them.

Laura is not like Paige. She can't be, and that's why she shouldn't stay longer than necessary.

He had to fix this. Find the alpha, stop the attacks, if not for justice and revenge, just to give Laura a reason to move on. If Derek stops the rogue alpha, perhaps Laura's door will finally open and the threat of his sister losing herself won't come to pass.

Derek closed his eyes, if he was to fight this alpha, there was much to do, and he could start by making sure the new betta – Scott, his mind supplied – wouldn't do anything stupid.

***

Trying very hard to not scream in frustration, Derek limited himself to observe the people around him. Considering he used to live in New York, one would think Derek was used to people, and that was a wrong assumption. Derek was used to crowds, but he didn't necessarily like them. New York was the kind of place when you could hide in plain sight. He was used to walk around, seemly alone, and sometimes talk, usually to Paige.

Beacon Hills was a place were things just were different. It was not a small town, but it wasn't a big city either. Yet much like a large city, things just didn't fade. Beacon Hills carried an energy that in Derek's mind, just didn't let things fade as they should.

Now, standing outside a party he had not been invited to, watching a teen parade his obvious crush around while unknowingly putting the very same object of his affection in danger, Derek just felt resentful of Beacon Hills all over again.

Perhaps, he was just projecting himself. Seeing traces of his foolish crush in Scott's innocent actions. he couldn't help it, Paige was dead, and so was his family.

This was not about him, and Derek had to remember that. Getting Scott away from this girl – Allison? – was for her safety as well as his. Rationally, Derek knew Scott was not responsible for his actions, at least not the ones related to the wolf, for he had no idea what was happening to him.

He just felt… tired.

There was a moment when Scott's instinct was too much to handle and Derek thought he would have to intervene, but Scott ran away in panic, leaving Allison behind, confused and a little hurt for the chemo signals she was giving.

"Allison?" he asked in his best charming smile, truing to look less creepy and more reassuring to the teen. "I'm friends with Scott, he had to leave and asked me to drive you back, if you want to."

She smiled, confused but curious, "Is he okay?"

"He was feeling a little under the weather," Derek said, and against his better judgment he kept talking, "He didn't want to leave you, but—" he made a gesture around with his hand, "I'm sorry."

"Oh," she looked disappointed, "Could you take me home, please?"

"Heeey Derek!" Stiles almost tumbled over his own feet when he reached them, "Allison! Scott is so very sorry, I was just going to make sure he's okay, and kept saying he didn't want to leave—"

"It's fine," Allison interrupted, but her scent was the same, "I understand, please check on him, I'll catch a ride with Derek," her smile was… familiar… and so was her scent, and he didn't like that familiarity.

"Sure!" Stiles smiled awkwardly and then flailed, leaving them behind.

Derek smiled again and guided Allison to his car. His plan was to simply drive her and be done with it, but Allison was under the impression he knew Scott, after all he called himself his friend.

"Is he really okay?" she asked.

Derek shrugged, "It's… well, yes, he was just not feeling well, and that embarrassed him."

"So, he ran?" she raised an eyebrow and Derek chuckled, making her smile.

"Not very bright, I know," he acknowledged, "He will grovel tomorrow, I assure you that."

"Will he?"

"Yeah," Derek thought of himself and Paige, "He will."

After that, the calm conversation eased into simple topics, mostly about places they would like to travel. Allison was easy going, and she was new in town, she told Derek her family moves a lot due his father's job, and Derek didn't ask more, but when they arrived to her house, he the sharp and chilling hit of ice down his spine.

There were ghosts roaming Allison's house. They were old and lost in their grieve, with almost no trace of what their used to be in their moans and grunts, and all of them have claws and fangs in their bloodied features, with a slice across their torso, a werewolf's death by hunters.

"Allison… Argent?"

"Yeah," she said absentmindedly, gathering her things before opening the door to the car, "Thanks for the ride, Derek!"

She walked past the ghosts, they didn't even look at her, for they had no quarrel with the daughter of hunters that perhaps had no idea what history her named carried or at least was not guilty of those spirits' end. But they noticed him and crawled towards his presence.

He should stay, he knew that, it was part of what he had to do and it was clear the moment who took Paige's hand all those years ago, the duty she gave him with their deal. But here, it was too much. He looked the other way and drove away from Allison, from her house, her name, and the deaths it carried.

He didn't notice her forgotten jacket until later.

***

Derek hung the jacket from a tree as the whispers in the forest grew louder and the restless spirits clung to his clothes with immaterial fingers and broken nails. They were talking about "the boy, the wolf boy that runs the night" and Derek was sure they were referring to Scott for he could feel him getting closer.

For a dark moment, he thought of just letting him get to Allison, but that moment passed. He closed his eyes and inhaled the dark, cold night.

" _Where is she now?_ " he began to quote, getting himself to remember, looking at his hands " _What, will these hands never be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that._ "

The howl echoing in the woods takes him away from his thoughts of Shakespeare and ghosts from stories and the ones clinging to him for he was the only available to listen. Instead, his attention focused on Scott, who fully transformed showed in the clearing, asking for Allison.

"She's safe," he said with resentment, "from you."

"What did you do to her?" Scott demanded and Derek frowned, confused.

From behind him, the chill increased and the phantom dirt moved, an unmarked grave that hid a long-gone woman with only the upper half of her torso, a werewolf killed by hunters. She dragged herself towards him, clawing at his jeans, _"He's mad, so made, look at him, not, look at me sin-eater, ME, ME!!"_

"She's fine," he repeated, "Scott, listen to me—!"

The were howls, but only echoes of what it used to be, ghosts attracted to were living wolfs were gather. The woman clung to him, smearing phantom blood all over his clothes and Derek, begging for help, demanding attention, but Derek couldn't breathe.

His eyes shone blue, and his left shifted to silver, then he felt himself under water.

"Paige?" he whispered in the darkness of his own mind, then he spoke without knowing what he was saying in his own voice and the echo of Paige's "Too late, they are already here."

_RUN!_

His instincts took over, and he ran without Scott, until he felt the pull, the tiny pull telling him his pack-mate was in danger. He quickly turned around but as whenever his body was not only his own, he mind was processing things as if he were under water, slow and muted. 

Scott was pinned to a tree by an arrow, hunters were going to take him and Derek couldn't let that happen, so he attacked. His priority was Scott so the moment he was able to he ran towards him, breaking to arrow and herding him to safety.

_Paige… Paige let me… let me…_

"Who were those men?" Scott asked and Derek replied almost in automatic.

"Hunters."

He explained to Scott a little about those men who have hunted them for centuries now. He left out the gruesome details, the sword cutting those in half, and the ghosts howling in the woods for a retribution that might never come.

His voice was steady and Scott…. Well, Scott was blaming him for his turning, for being a monster, Derek was mad, this child was so carelessly hating the gift the bite was meant to be and yet…

Paige's calm demeanor surged over his own.

"I didn't turn you," he found himself saying, "Only an alpha werewolf can turn a human, this was done by another." He flashed his eyes blue to prove, "One with red eyes."

He didn't want this kid around but at the same time, he couldn't just leave him, they were brothers now, and yet he felt no love for him, he didn't even know him.

He should leave, the ghosts were crawling closer, the cold was getting to him.

"Come on Scott," he offered his hand, "Let me take you home."

"I can't do this Derek," he insisted, but took Derek's hand anyway, "I can't be… _this_!"

His mind was still split, and he could almost feel Paige rolling her eyes at Scott, that made him smile softly to himself.

"It's not that bad," he tried to reason as they walked the woods, "You're faster, stronger, you can see and hear better," he pointed out. "You will adapt."

"I didn't ask for this," he hissed.

Derek didn't look at him, "I know."

Even if Scott was scolding at him, as he had no other person to direct his anger, Derek was grateful he was there to do so. the alternative was another innocent teen bleeding black and dying as their own body rejected the bite and Derek has seen one too many of those in his lifetime.

They were too deep into the woods, so day caught up with them by the time the highway was in their sight. The last thing Derek expected was an old baby-blue jeep to tail them and stop at the side of the road, Stiles driving it.

"Rough night?" he asked, his tone anything but amused.

Derek rolls his eyes, because of course Stiles knows Scott is a werewolf and by association, Derek. He couldn't even bring himself to care, he was just tired. Derek climbed into the back of the Jeep with little more than a grunt.

"You know what worries me the most?" Scott said after a while.

"If you say Allison I'm going to punch you in the head," was Stiles quick reply and Derek found himself smiling at that.

"She's fine," Derek said tiredly, "But in your current state, you might hurt her, don't do that."

Scott turns to glare at him, "As if this wasn't your fault."

"I didn't turn you Scott," he repeated, "The alpha? He did this."

Stiles glances at him over the rear-view mirror, narrowing his eyes, "I need to have a long conversation with you, you know, about wolfs and fangs and things like that."

Derek grunts in acknowledgement but said nothing more. He let his hand fall on the backseat and was not surprised when Paige blinked herself out of nowhere besides him to take it. The cold touch grounded him as much as it was capable of these days.

"Laura is calm now," she said. "But she needs her door."

Derek closed his eyes. Laura needed him and perhaps he could actually help her this time. He failed her as her beta, and no matter what Laura said, that was the truth and Derek believed it. He failed her and she was dead, but she was not gone, not really, and that was another whole problem, one that perhaps Derek could actually solve.

There were many spirits crawling in the Preserve, many restless souls attracted to haunting now that someone able to listen was present in their radar. Derek couldn't distract himself with them, and perhaps that was selfish, but his sister came first, even if it was too late to save her life, he could at least save her soul.

Once the alpha was dealt with, Laura's door would appear, Derek was certain, he just hoped it wouldn't take too long for him to do what he must. Laura didn't have time to spare, none at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek was playing Bach's Cello Suite No.1 as if he actually had engaging audience. He liked to think that his uncle Peter was listening to the music, but there was little indication that the shell of a man staring into the distance was actually aware of his nephew's presence. His uncle used to like this melody, when Derek immersed into first playing the instrument, it was the first song he requested and Derek make an effort to memorized as quickly as possible.

He hated hospitals, extended care units were no exception. This place was still a hospital and while the rational part of his mind knew there was no other place where Peter could be in his state, from the beginning he disliked the idea of just leaving him here.

He fought with Laura about it. A lot. Of the blur that was leaving Beacon Hills behind, he remembered that much.

"He's fine, Derek."

Laura was pacing the room and had been doing do for a while now. Derek would have feel bad about ignoring her if not for the fact that she was insisting on leaving, and that didn't sit well with him. Paige was silent, as she usually was, but even more so now that Derek's sister was in her plane of existence and not Derek's.

"He's not fine, Lor," Derek said in a low voice, eyes closed and mind focused in between the music and answering his sister. "He hasn't been fine for a long time."

Laura crouched before Peter, eying him critically. "Is the alpha's scent here?"

Derek inhaled deeply, as he did as soon as he entered the room and then nodded. It was the main reason he didn't want to leave, he couldn't help but wonder if the rogue alpha was just taunting him with the idea of putting Peter's live in danger or not.

"But he's still alive," Laura pointed out, "The rogue didn't take him out."

Derek stopped playing, "I can't feel him."

Paige gave him a concerned look, as well as Laura who asked him, "What do you mean?"

"Peter," Derek clarified. "I can't feel his presence anymore."

Laura gave him a strange look, as if not sure what Derek was talking about. He sighed heavily, preparing to explain himself, as much as putting his thoughts into words was a difficult task for him.

"After what happened…" he swallowed, "I couldn't feel anyone… not even you, remember?"

"Derek…" Laura pleaded with his name, she hated talking about everything after the fire, for a long time Derek pretended nothing had happened just to keep the calm between them. But Laura was dead, even if Derek could see her, she was gone and eh had ignored himself far too long, so he kelp talking.

"When that happened… a few days later, I was able to recognize you as my alpha, my wolf settle… but it was just you," he closed his eyes again. "I came to see Peter and my wolf latched to him as well, recognizing pack."

Derek looked at Peter again, his dull eyes not seeing his nephew at all.

"He was always there, a humming presence in the back of my head, the only other beta of our pack," his fingers closed around the cello's bow so hard he was about to snap it, "But after you… after what happened to you, I stopped feeling him as well."

For a moment, Derek thought he had lost both of them. He called the hospital in panic, and they informed him that Peter was there, with no changes from the last report they gave him the week before. Peter was alive, but that didn't settle Derek, for he could no longer feel him, he had effectible lost his pack in a second, once again.

He was panicking so hard in the subway, Paige had to take over to prevent him from shifting and howling his pain right there, and he was grateful and angry with her for doing that at the same time.

Since the fire, Derek knew there was something not quite right with him anymore, the fact that he could see ghost was the most obvious sign of this change, but it also came with other things he hated to remember. He accepted them, but it was with a resigned air of knowing there was nothing he could do about it.

Before the fire, Peter was there for him. And now, even thinking Peter was in the same room, Derek still couldn't feel his presence. He didn't know if it was because the new alpha had not acknowledged Peter's life or if it was because something was wrong with Derek, as it usually was.

He could barely feel Scott's presence, and the buzz of the alpha call was almost non-existing. He wasn't surprised he couldn't feel Peter, but he was worried nonetheless.

"He's safe then," Laura tried to calm him, "The rogue doesn't care."

Derek shook his head, "He's not safe, even if the rogue doesn't want him, there's… there's hunters back in town, Argents… they are going to finish what they started…" Derek stood up, placing the cello back its case, "I can't let them hurt him even more."

Laura's anger made the room vibrate, "Don't, I can't lose you again Derek."

He couldn't help, he laughed, "You already did Lor," he pointed out with grief and anger in his voice, "You're dead."

And there was no response to that because it was nothing but the true. Derek stood up and placed the cello and the bow in the bag, closed it and swinging it over his shoulder by the strap. He looked at Peter with guilt in his eyes before leaving.

"I'm sorry uncle."

He closed the door behind him, ignoring Laura's callings. There were other ghosts in the hospital, there always were, it was a hot stop for this kind of supernaturals. Derek didn't want to deal with them but he felt the pull and nag of it in the back of his head and in the cold in his bones, calling for his second nature.

Derek stopped in a hallway, the lights were shifting between on and off, but not because they were failing. He closed his eyes, he had seen this scene play so many times before. As predicted, Paige was next to him a moment later, her eyes shining violet. Slowly, he opened his own eyes, his left one was silver in color while his right remained his natural shade.

"Derek?" Laura's called for him, but he had to stay focused and so he walked down the hall Paige pointed to, while Laura shadowed behind them in confusion.

The door to the room calling them unlocked with ease and Derek found himself in a room smelling of sadness and pain, with an old lady looking down at her own body, the monitor silent with the flatline teasing her with her own dead.

"I was alone," the lady whispered in the silent room, "I was… I was hoping my children would be here."

Derek left the cello by the door and moved to take her hand in his, his left eye shining brightly as he the woman a sad smile, "I'm sorry ma'am."

She looked at him, "Would you tell them?"

Suddenly, Derek's mind was hit with a wave of memories that didn't' belong to him, yet he was glad those were happy reminiscences. His hold on her hand strengthened as she shifted, giving him the sad memories as well and the pain of the last few months.

"It's okay," he said, letting go of her hands were a shadow has swirling between them, he knew what it was and what to do with it, "You're fine now."

She looked between him and the cluster of shadows in his hands, nodding.

"Thank you."

A door manifested behind her and she smiled, probably recognizing it from a good memory, something close to her heart. Without delay she stood before it and the door opened, light almost blinding manifested behind it. The woman crossed it with a smile and it closed, vanishing a moment latter.

Derek inhaled heavily, taking the darkness from his hand towards his mouth, ignoring Laura's concerned shriek or the fact that Paige had to stop her from coming closer. Derek swallowed the darkness whole, it clawed at his throat and nested in his chest drowning him in dry land for a moment that felt like an eternity, before a universe vanished in his left eye and with it the shadows in his chest.

He left the room coughing black specks of blood, looking as pale as the woman he just helped open her door to the afterlife. He almost dropped the cello a couple times before reaching the parking lot, Paige and Laura fighting behind him. Mostly Laura shouting and Paige glaring, but it was still a fight.

"What the hell was that?!" she demanded, "Derek, what just happened?!"

"Nothing," he didn't sound convincing, and of course he was lying, "Leave it be, Lor."

She was not going to, he knew that, but he needed at least an hour to compose himself before telling his sister how much he had hidden from her since the fire.

***

Behind the bleachers at Beacon Hills High School, Derek felt the need to just punch something, or more specifically, someone. That someone being Scott, because even if the rational part of his mind was telling him how much this was not Scott's fault, the whole situation was just disastrous.

As a newly bitten werewolf, Scott should be with his pack mates and alpha, isolated from distraction that might provoke his anger and learning about focus and control. But not, he was playing lacrosse and getting angry and very much losing control, because his alpha was a rogue werewolf and the closest thing he had to a pack mate was Derek, who had other more important matters to deal with, like settling his sister's restless spirit so she wouldn't become a drifting ghost.

Derek's connection with Scott as a pack mate was weak and fragile, probably due the alpha not pulling Derek into his own power, or the fact that as werewolves come, Derek was no longer the standard. The only reason there was a connection between Scott and Derek, was because Derek acknowledged him as pack, even if that connection was not reciprocated by the younger wolf.

He was about to bang his head against one of the metal bars when Stiles ducked under the bleachers and glared at him. Derek raised an eyebrow and Stiles glared some more, as if that told him anything at all.

"What?" Derek asked, finally.

Stiles hissed, "Scott! He almost ate me!"

Derek tilted his head to a side, his eyebrows doing something complicated that downed into quick comprehension and then anger, "He lost control, didn't he?"

"Did he had any to begin with?" Stiles mused to himself, "Nope, none."

Growling low, Derek stood and tried very hard to not cross his arms over his chest in a closed gesture. Me mildly succeed for the look Stiles gave him, muttering something about Scott having a second puberty or something alike. Stiles gestured Derek to follow him to the lockers where Scott was looking as if the world was crumbling around him piece by piece, and when he noticed Derek in the room, his mood quickly changed to anger.

"Whoa!" Stiles dodged quickly as Scott launched himself at Derek, glowing eyes and fangs out.

Derek dodged him, the grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed Scott against the nearest locker, denting the metal in the process but making the younger wolf lose his anger spike at least to retract his fangs.

"Calm. Down."

Scott kept growling at him, "What are you doing here?"

Unimpressed, Stiles answered. "I called him, after what happened in practice and you breaking Jackson's arm and hurting Danny, we're going to get in trouble Scott, we have to do something, the game is coming up, you're fist line but that's no use if you want to eat the goalie!"

"And you called him?!"

" _Him_ is standing right here," Derek reminded them, because he disliked being talk to as if he wasn't present in the room, "How many people did you hurt in a single practice? You are going to give yourself away, then is not only hunter being trigger happy, but everything around us trying to kill the beast."

Scott pushed himself off the locker and Derek let him go, he was snarling still and looking at Derek with so much resentment Derek almost flinched, almost.

"And Allison? What do you want with her? Stay away!"

Derek blinked.

The silence stood for a few heartbeats, with only Scott's ragged angry breath between them. Stiles was staring at his friend as if he had two heads, but eventually snapped out of it. Stiles walked towards him and smacked Scott upside the head, earning a yelp from the younger wolf.

"Scott, this is not the time to be jealous!" Stiles pointed out, exasperated, "Derek is not going to steal your girlfriend!"

Derek blinked again.

"T-That's not!" Scott struggled to explain himself, flustered, "She has nothing to do with this, and you took her from the party, and—"

"You were losing control," Derek explained slowly and trying very hard to not lose his temper, "I told you this already."

Scott made a face very close to a pout, "She was… she said… and you..."

Derek closed his eyes while Stiles was muttering how much he couldn't believe this was happening, asking the empty room what he did to deserve this, as Scott continue saying short sentences with no concept or comprehension.

"Derek is not interested in Allison!" Stiles hissed to Scott, then poked Derek on the arm, "Right?"

"Correct," Derek answered behind clenched teeth, counting past ten because punching Scott was not going to help, no matter how tempting. He was just a kid, he reminded himself, he didn't know better.

The rush of cool air in the lockers alerted him of an apparition, while the icy touch of Paige's fingers on the back of his neck calmed him enough to process his thoughts and not just shove Scott into a locker again. Laura was at his side as well, but she was not talking, still angry with him for what happened in the hospital.

"But she's an Argent," Derek said slowly, turning his eyes towards Scott. "Her family are Hunters."

Laura was before him as soon as he finished that phrase, her image twitching in the verge of losing control, "The Argents are not our only problem, Derek."

Derek gave her a look, then shifted his attention back to Scott and Stiles, as he was not going to give himself away by talking to people they couldn't see, they knew far more than he was comfortable with about him already.

"But—" Scott whined, "She's so nice…"

Stiles interrupted him again, "Why are we arguing about Allison? She's not a threat, not at the moment at least, is she? Hunter family aside, right? Right." Stiles answered his own question, although Derek would argue about Allison not being a threat, "But you Scotty, getting flashing eyes and fangs in the field, that's bad news."

"Allison is not the problem," Derek remarked out and it as mostly true, because while Derek was concerned by her family name, he was not even sure she was trained to hunt.

So, he said to Scott, " _You_ are the problem, because if you get angry, you lose control, then you shift and hurt someone, and that's the perfect excuse for those who want to hunt us to eagerly do so."

Laura was almost towering him, and she was not being subtle in her urge for Derek to focus on her questions and not Scott. The lockers near her were shaking and the room was feeling colder, Derek risked a glance, urging his sister to calm down with a silent plead, then turned his attention back to Scott.

"You are not going to play the game," he declared in a growl, his patience almost gone. "I can teach you how to focus, but you're not going to get it before the game."

"Hey!" Scott said, offended. "I can be a fast learner."

Derek rolled his eyes, "It's not about how fast you can learn, this is not something you _memorize_ , is something you practice and eventually get right, it requires—"

"Dedication, patience, being objective," Stiles interrupted. "Like a skill you master, not information you repeat?"

"Yes," Derek acknowledge, "Like that."

"Well" Scott bit his lower lip, "Then teach me."

Derek closed his eyes and sighed audibly. He had no time for this, the best thing Scott could do was not get in trouble until Derek could guarantee he was safe to be around, and he was not going to be able to do that running around a lacrosse field with people shouting and him getting angry.

"I—"

Laura grabbed Derek by the back of the neck, icing his skin and cutting his voice for a moment, he was startled and flinched hard, making both Scott and Stiles look at him funny.

"He's a teenager, Derek" Laura reminded him sternly. "A teenager eager to take the chance to please a crowd and impress his lady crush, he's not going to list to you."

Derek looked severely at Scott in the eye, as he couldn't glare as his Sister from such angle.

"You didn't" Paige mutter, not looking at him.

It was as if ice water doused him. He shrugged Laura's hold and held himself high, nodding towards Scott. The teen smiled with such sincerity Derek almost groaned. At his side, Stiles was staring at him with a frown but clapped Scott in the back anyway, shifting his focus from Derek to his friend.

"You're still not playing in that game."

He ignored Laura and Paige when he walked out the lockers, as well as Scott and his disappointed expression, he barely noticed Stiles' worried one. He wanted to be alone for a moment.

But of course, Stiles didn't take the hint.

"Dude, you need to explain something!" Stiles declared as Derek walked back to his car trying very hard to ignore him, "Several _somethings_ , right now!"

Derek stopped, almost making Stiles collide with him. He half turned to look at him and glared in his direction, not in the mood to be questioned, "What do you want?"

"I just told you," Stiles repeated, annoyed, "Explanations. Important ones related to fur and fangs and my best friend wanting to eat my face, because you see, I've been doing some research and discarding all results related to Twilight, there's some weird stuff that I can't tell if it's real or not, but I need to know, ok? I _need_ to know."

"You can't just google werewolves and become and expert," Derek rolled his eyes, "Do you think that would do any good?"

Stiles glared back at him, "And why do you think I'm asking _you_? Because I enjoy our mindfully and long conversations where you don't glare at me all the time?" 

Derek frowned, "What conversations?"

"Exactly!" Stiles hissed, "We need to actually have conversations, and this topic is important!"

Derek glanced up to the sky, mentally asking for the patience he didn't have to deal with everything and everyone. It didn't help that he wanted to get himself away from people and process the burden he took from the old lady in the extend care unit a few hours ago.

"Stiles…" he started, willing himself to talk.

He coughed, feeling something clawing at his throat from the inside and a searing pain behind his left eye. He moved to grab onto something, not expecting Stiles to quickly be by his side and supporting him from falling when his knees buckled.

"What's wrong? Hey, hey, Derek, don't fall on me buddy, come on—" Stiles babbled, trying to guide Derek towards the nearest bench to sit down without tripping over their own feet.

Derek inhaled as if he was drowning and he couldn't see with his left eye. He covered with his own hand when he felt it burning and freezing at the same time, stabbing pain into his head in waves. He lowered his head between his knees and tried to not drown.

Paige's cold hands forced his head up, making him look directly into her glowing violet eyes.

"Give it to me." Derek clenched his teeth, glaring in anger at her demand. She dug her phantom nails into his skin, "Is either that or bleed it out, Derek."

At his side, Stiles was looking more and more disturbed by the second. It didn't help that he sprout his claws and was ready to slash his own side, but Paige, unnerved by his actions, moved quickly and connected her frozen lips with his, opening the breach between their connection and taking the resonating energy nesting in Derek.

He pushed himself backwards when he felt the tendrils in his throat breach his lips and be taken by Paige. He clawed at his face and hit his head on the bench when he fell, feeling as oxygen finally was getting into his lungs.

"What the hell dude," Stiles sounded scared, disgusted and concerned at the same time. "What the actual hell!"

Derek moved to stand again, bating at Stiles' hand when he tried to touch him, growling at him out of instinct.

"Hey, hey, I'm just trying to help!" Stiles explained, raising his hands in surrender.

"Don't."

Derek hissed at him. He felt a gash in the side of his head made by his own claws. Derek turned around to not let Stiles see the black blood sluggishly coming out of the injured and without another word, walked away.

***

He went back to his old house, despite the smell of ashes and smoke. Paige was with him but she wasn't talking, while Laura was close to throw objects at him with the sheer power of her bad mood, so he had to get himself together and talk to her. Even if he wasn't particularly looking forward to it.

"You were taking too long," Paige scolded once they were in the house, "Derek."

"I know!" He shouted, "I know Paige, I _know_."

She pressed her lips into a thin line, her expression calculating and out of patience, "She was not even anchored to this world and you neglected to process that resonance, what do you think is going to happen when you try to do the ritual for Laura and fail?"

Laura, hearing her name, stopped in her pacing, "A ritual? What ritual? You need to explain me what the hell is going on right now, both of you!"

Derek flexed his fingers, willing himself to not sprout claws out of frustration.

"That's what I _do_ , Laura," he said as a matter of fact. "I take whatever is holding ghosts back so they can move on before is too late."

"And _eat_ it?" Laura sounded scandalized, "You eat them, you carry them with you… I know you do."

Derek didn't look at her in the eye, he just nodded. Laura smiled bitterly, "Father taught me about this… he talked about those with the power to absolve the errant souls and how he saw it firsthand, but I thought… I thought only humans could…"

Paige stood tall between them, "He made a pact with me, after—"

"After the fire, after Kate," Derek spoke over her words. "So I could… so I could stay with you."

Laura moved closed, holding her own form to wrap her arms around his brother, touching her forehead to his, "But… but this?"

"It's the price," Derek said, his eyes down casted to avoid Laura's, "I can see ghosts, but it goes beyond that."

Paige kept herself a polite distance from the siblings as she spoke, "I'm more than a ghost Laura, I'm higher form of a specter that has been through… a lot," she licked her lips. "Those experiences gave me the power to make a deal with Derek, to strength my existence and give him a second chance at the same time, but it comes with a price that _cannot_ be ignored."

Derek leaned into Laura, "I told you I was never going to be the same."

Angry, Laura pushed at his brother, but her eyes were glassy and her voice was strained with a turmoil of feelings, "It was right after the fire, I didn't think you meant _literally_."

With a wet chuckle, Derek put some more distance between himself and his older sister. He closed his eyes, then open them again, letting her see as his left eye flashed silver. At the same time, Paige's eyes flashed violet.

"Those bound in a pact as Derek," Paige explained, "Are called _Sin-eaters_."

Laura made a face, clearly not amused and if Derek was reading her well enough, she was mad, very mad, "And it's literal?"

Derek shrugged, unaffected by the name or what it meant as he had been this for the past six years. Rituals regarding the supernatural seldom were subtle.

"Yes."

The room suddenly felt freezing cold, Derek could see his own breath. He refused to show how the sudden change affected him and just looked at his sister, mad and with rage in her eyes.

"You're telling me," she began, "That you take the sins and burdens of the death and _eat_ them so they can move on?"

"It's not that different from taking the pain from others, Lor," Derek compared, raising his hand as if trying to point out how werewolves use touch to drain pain, "Is another form of hurt, I can take it away, that's all."

"It is different!" Laura argued.

Paige rolled her eyes, "It's _not all_ , but it's the most important," she moved closer to Laura. "Ghosts, as yourself, that remain in the world of the living are bound here by a burden that acts as an anchor between yourself and the world, once your burdens are resolved, Derek can break an absolve the influence of those anchors over your spirit so you can move on."

"He _eats_ them," Laura said again, hissing, "He's not dissolving, he _takes_ them… those things don't disappear, they are hurting him!"

Paige frowned, "It's not simple, but they don't remain with him, I don't allow it," Paige explained severely, "Between Derek and I, we take care of it."

"Energy never disappears," Derek sighed, "Just transforms, so we do that, transform that power."

Paige continued in a grave voice, "But, Laura, we're talking about actions that stain and cut the immortal spirit… the power that born from such things is not to be taken lightly… cleansing someone of such hurts takes a toll."

"I'm _fine_ ," Derek said in a louder voice, "Yes, it's not a walk in the park, but neither is being a werewolf, and I can do both, I know what I'm doing."

"Derek…" Laura looked mortified, "You can't do the same with me, I'm not going to let you take my mistakes into you, you're going to get hurt!"

"You will," Derek said severely, "Because if you don't, you will get corrupted and lose yourself, you will decay to the point of no return… you will turn into an errant specter, I can't… I can't let you become that Laura, I can't."

Laura shock her head, not convinced by his words, but it was not up to her anymore. Derek was set on helping his sister move on and no matter what, he was going to do it. Taking the sins of others onto himself was not news to him, Laura couldn't understand it, but that was fine, she didn't need to.

Slowly, Derek leaned against the wall and let himself fall to sit on the floor. He felt drained and overwhelmed, but there was still much to do. He had to put himself together and set things right, somehow.

***

Derek wasn't certain if he let himself fall asleep or eating the sins of the lady in the hospital without completing the ritual was what made him pass out, but when he woke up, he was staring into a pair of glowing red eyes right on his face.

He was on the floor, the alpha looming over him in a grotesque form, even for a werewolf. The creature looked almost feral, and Derek was sure that if he did the wrong move, he was going to get his throat torn out by the rogue alpha.

The alpha flashed his eyes at him and Derek felt the pull of pack, an alpha calling for his beta, and he hated it.

"Derek, don't."

Laura's form solidified on her knees besides him, she was in her beta form, growling to the other wolf even thinking he could not see her. Still, the alpha flicker his eyes in her general direction, perhaps feeling the energy she was emitting in such a high state of emotional distress. She roared, making the house around them shake with the force of her anger.

The alpha backed away from Derek slowly, looking around and snarling at nothing. Laura's eyes were bright purple, her spirit shaking and flicker in her state of haunting.

"Laura, stop, you're—"

"Get out of here!" Laura roared as the alpha was approaching them again, prompting Derek to get to his feet and ran outside the house and into the Preserve.

The alpha was chasing him and he could feel the call, his howls were filed with anger and demand, but also sorrow. Derek was distracted enough by the call and the mental pull that he noticed too late the ghosts emerging from their shallow forgotten graves towards him, catching his ankle and forcing him to the ground.

"Paige!"

She materialized next to him, her eyes shinning violet, making his own left eye turn silver. He felt underwater as Paige took over, moving his body as if it was her own. Derek felt her power concentrating in his left eye as Paige pushed the errant spirits away from him in a blast of their power, commanding them into silence.

The errant ghosts were begging and demanding, werewolves murder long time ago, seeking someone to listen as many could not. But these souls were bitter and past the point of reason, summoning a door to the afterlife for them would be difficult and Derek was certain he wasn't going to be able to do with a rogue alpha trying to catch him.

With a silent apology, Derek let Paige shut the spirits down. He got to hist feet and sprinted from the clearing, but the rogue was right in front of him, claws buried in his abdomen, taking Derek down and pining him to the cold ground. The alpha was snarling at him, twisting his claws in Derek's flesh making him gasp and almost scream.

The alpha's free hand moved towards his face, tracing his check with his claws and pushing his head aside. Realization hit Derek like a punch, the alpha was forcing Derek to bare his throat to him, to submit.

Laura was at his side again, screaming, but she was also terrified and for the first time since he found his sister's spirit, he can actually feel her in a way only a sin-eater can.

"No—Laura!"

She was face to face with the alpha, her beta form twisted into something else. Her skin broken and clothes ragged and stained with dirt and blood, there was a gaping wound across her naval, almost at the same height the alpha had his claws buried in Derek. Understanding this, Derek felt a wave of mixed emotions cloud his mind. Rage, for he was face to face with his sister's killer. Fear, because the alpha was so strong, stronger that Derek expected, and he had him at his mercy, and finally sorrow, because if he failed here, then his struggle would have been for nothing.

No. There was more to all this than just the world throwing him one after another, and he was going to fight with whatever he had. Derek closed his eyes, concentrating in the pain, the claws in his abdomen, the feeling of blood and let himself _suffer._

His left eye diffused in between silver and white, leaving an entire universe been see behind it. Paige took over with such ease, his body like if was hers once again. His hands moved towards the alpha, catching him by the snout and growling in a fight between wolves. His claws dug into the flesh of the alpha and he pushed, then slashed across his distorted canine face.

Laura howled, making the air around her tremble, her spiritual energy pushed the alpha away from him and into a tree, with a sickening sound of torn flesh and broken bones.

Derek felt lightheaded, but he still got up, ignoring the searing pain on his stomach, and ran. He could hear the howling of the alpha, demanding and begging at the same time for Derek to come back and surrender, it was such a bizarre combination.

But he kept running, until he reached the old Hale House again, but more importantly, his car. Derek barely make it inside and turn the ignition on when he saw the alpha by the tree line. With a string of curses, he drove on instinct, as fast as he could.

At some point the alpha stopped chasing him, howling for his return, and Derek refused to listen.

***

"OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL DEREK?!"

His head was pounding, his stomach was still open and he had no patience for Stiles screaming at his face, how did he even get into his hotel room anyway?

"You're not in the room idiot!" Stiles answered and perhaps Derek was actually talking instead of just thinking, "You're at the door and the trail of blood is not suspicious at all, Jesus…"

Derek was vaguely aware of Stiles helping him to his feet and roaming thought his jacket to get the key to ge the door open, clumsily stepping inside and almost dropping Derek in the process. By something close to coordination, they managed to get at the edge of the bed, where Derek sat breathing heavily, with eyes clouded with pain.

"I'm gonna, I… don't die asshole, I'll be right back!"

And Stiles was gone, the door left ajar. Derek couldn't care less. He lowered himself to lay the upper half of his body on the bed, his feet still touching the ground. He might have dozed off for a moment, because when he opened his eyes again he was staring at Stiles' angry face, it would have been somewhat effective if he didn't smell so _terrified_.

"I've been calling for hours," he hissed and his eyes were a little misty, "Scott played the damn game and… and it wasn't that bad but still."

"He—what?"

"It doesn't matter," Still muttered and pressed and towel against Derek's stomach, making him hiss at the contact, "Sorry, sorry, oh my god, that's… why does your blood has black in it dude? What the hell?"

"Don't call me dude."

Stiles pressed harder, making Derek hiss and flash his eyes at him. Stiles stared back, stubborn although intimidated, and eh pressed the towel a bit harder, as if making a point of tying his luck, Derek was not sure.

"What happened?" Stiles asked with a slight tremor in his voice, "I've been trying to find you for _hours_ , Scott—it doesn't matter," Stiles sounded pissed off, "It worked out, dumb luck, whatever."

Derek grunted in acknowledge, thought he was not sure what Stiles was talking about. Stiles keeps talking as well as slowly but firmly pushing Derek to lay on the bed. The constant string of words is for some reason soothing for Derek, even if he can't make out of the words.

At some point, Derek asked for water, and to his surprise Stiles was ready with a bottle to offer him some. He might have thanked him or not, Derek wasn't entirely sure when he was talking or just thinking.

"Well, you're talking right now, moron," Stiles mumbled, "You're not making sense, but at least you're not bleeding on the hallway anymore..."

"The alpha…" Derek mumbled.

Stiles' pressed a little harder against his side and Derek hissed, "Sorry, I just…"

"It's fine…" Derek closed his eyes sighing, "It's gonna be fine…"

He was under water again, his left eye pulsing as Paige took over, redirecting their spiritual power towards healing Derek's injures, the fact that those were inflicted by an alpha was making it harder to endure, but with the extra power of his offset nature, he was going to live another day.

Paige's voice echoed in his head, "This is bad Derek, Laura… we don't have much time, she doesn't have much time."

"I know," Derek said, "I know…"

At some point he passed out, because he stopped feeling as if he were dying. When he opened his eyes again it was in the middle of the night, Stiles was sitting at his side on the bed, his bad against the headboard, he was asleep as well, while sitting on the edge of the bed was Paige staring into her hands.

Derek blinked slowly, reaching to touch Paige but she moved out of his reach, "You need it more than I do right now, it's fine."

"It's not… nothing about this is fine."

Paige stared blankly at him, "But we will fight it."

Derek glanced at Stiles', he seemed exhausted and he smelled like stress and Derek's blood. But he was here even thinking Derek didn't call him. That made things less terrible, even if he was not going to admit it out loud.

"Yes," he agreed, "We will."

Stiles moved closer to Derek in his sleep and Derek, still too tired and feeling oddly safe, just let him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we get a little more insight into Derek's dual nature, what he can do and why is important for him to help Laura before she loses her mind due being too long in the mortal world. And of course, there's Stiles and Scott, because he can't forget about them. There's still a bunch of questions I'll be covering as the story progresses, and I hope you enjoy the ride. 
> 
> I have a Tumblr, if you're interested in chatting there as well: springbehere.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New POV character! For your delight.
> 
> Quick note, next update might be late because I will be going on vacation. I will read you later, thanks!

Alan Deaton was one of the unsuspected victims of the Hale Fire that nobody thought twice about, mostly because his relationship with the family was not exactly advertised, not to the regular population anyway.

His relationship with the Hale Family, and more specifically with Talia Hale, Alpha of the Hale Pack, had been one of friendship, guidance, and mutual understanding. It could have been more than that, it was supposed to be more than that, if not for the cruel fate the Hales were subjected to.

Talia had been a very strong woman, and she took her duties as an Alpha with great care. She found herself being an alpha at a young age and did so the best she could, taking care of the legacy her family brought to Beacon Hills, but more importantly, her own nuclear family.

The Hales were more than a pack, they were a family. Most member of their pack were born into the Hale blood line, humans and werewolves, and Talia did her best to protect them all. She was a respected figure in the supernatural world, and to this day Alan felt her dead was one of the grates loses Beacon Hills, and the supernatural world in general, had suffered.

He had been Talia's friend as well as her Emissary – and true to be told, for a while Alan hoped he could be more than that. Such desires did not come to be, for multiple reasons, but of course the most prominent one of them was Talia's dead.

Once, Alan wanted to be the best man he could be, a worthy Emissary for a pack he came to be part of. He balanced a dual life to gain knowledge and strength, his struggles seemed fleeting thanks to the enthusiasm he gained by working alongside Talia for the good of the pack and community he wanted to serve and protect.

He did everything he could… and he failed.

He couldn't protect his pack, he couldn't protect his friends, and everything that could have been was lost in the fire. The worst part, perhaps, was the knowledge that he didn't see it coming, and what he did see didn't change anything. The fire had been unnatural, and Alan saw with his own eyes the culprits, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

He failed Talia, and with that came a crushing guilt that sometimes made him wish he had been in that house when it was alit as well. But he didn't, and so Alan continue living. He retired from even the mere idea of being an Emissary, and his "day job" became his sole job, as the resident veterinarian in town.

Occasionally, he let himself drift back to the past by consulting in Peter Hale's state, only to be reminded of everything that was gone in that fire and how much he was able to do nothing about it.

The Hale Fire was something Alan would never forget, and after six years the memory of it was still set in the back of his mind, ever fresh, even after he had embraced the illusion of a mundane life by diving into his veterinary profession as his life line to sanity. It worked for a while, and eventually Alan allowed himself to heal.

It was never going to be the same, but for a moment, Alan actually thought that this was it, and of course he was proven wrong by a deer found dead in the Preserve with a revenge spiral carved into its body.

He knew the spiral was a calling, and he hoped it would go unanswered. But it was answered, and a few days Beacon Hills saw the return and subsequent demise of Laura Hale.

Once again, he failed.

Laura was… a young alpha, and alpha without a pack. Alan was surprised she was able to function with you Peter as her beta, specially with him being in a comatose state. Losing your pack, becoming an alpha, and then losing what was remaining of your pack in the same night was something Alan couldn't imagine, he fully expected Laura to lose her mind, and he was still not sure she hadn't. After all, the last time he saw Laura before her untimely demise, she was speaking on the phone with her younger brother, and that was just not possible.

If there was an image that would haunt Alan's memory forever, was the murder of Derek Hale.

***

Scott was late for work but Alan was not particularly worried, he was after all just a kid and usually very responsible with his job. Besides, it didn't take long for Scott to show up, if not for the fact the kid was apologizing as if Alan was about to set his mind about his character with just being late that Alan actually notice he was late in first place.

"It's fine, Scott," he assured the young man, "I don't think you're a sacker, on the contrary."

"Thanks," he said a little out of breath.

Scott was very nervous and he was not hiding it particularly well. The younger man was on edge for a while and even looked close to fainting when Sheriff Stilinski came by. It was an odd reaction, considering Scott himself made the appointment for the police dog to by check in to pull out the stitches Scott himself helped with the before.

Alan sighed internally, wondering if there was really a problem or just Scott being a teenager. He had no time to think about it too much, so he let it go for the time being, instead choosing to focus on Sheriff Stilinski, whom was not making just a routine visit, after all.

Getting the dog on the table was easy enough, she was a trained police dog, and even if most animals didn't associate the clinic with safety most of the time, she was not causing any fuss.

"Good girl," he said in a low voice once the dog settle on the table, while the Sherriff was producing an envelop for him.

"Is that the pictures we talked about?" Alan asked.

"Yes, could you look at them?"

Alan trusted Scott, he was a good kid and apprentice in pre-veterinary, but he was just a kid, and it seemed wrong to be talking about murders in front of him.

"Scott, can you get things ready to pull out the stitches?" he asked, "Please follow me Sheriff."

Giving one last glance to Scott to make sure he was not following them, Alan stepped into his office with Sheriff Stilinski, where he opened the envelop to see the pictures. It showed a man that had been attacked the night before, a school diver, but of course the man was not as innocent as he let people see, Alan knew a thing or two about him.

"Do you think it's a wolf?" the Sheriff asked, directly to the point, "We're trying to make sense of this, according to Sacramento, there were wolf hairs in Laura Hale's body, so perhaps is the same animal."

"Wolves are highly migratory, perhaps a pack found its way back to California, but these patterns of attack don't make sense for a wolf," he motioned towards the pictures, "Wolves go for the ankles to stop their prey, then for the throat to kill, these…" he pointed towards the man's face "Are claws marks, big ones too, I'm no expert as we discussed, but I don't think this was done but a wolf."

"A mountain lion, perhaps?" the sheriff suggested, "The possibility is out there."

"It is but…"

The sheriff sighed, "The wolf hairs in Laura Hale's body suggest differently, but the brutality of the attack," he man looked distant, "it just doesn't make sense, and let me tell you, this case is just so difficult, kids shouldn't be identifying their siblings' bodies, much less in parts."

Alan almost dropped the papers at that remark, but contained himself and put a mask of simple curiosity instead of letting himself be overwhelmed, "Siblings? I was under the impression Laura was the sole survivor of that fire, apart from her uncle."

Sheriff Stilinski shake his head, "No, I was involved in that case, back in the day, I remember the initial report, with Derek Hale missing, but the kid showed up a couple days later and well," the sheriff closed his eyes for a moment, "He was not talking, he barely looked alive, Laura took him out of town as soon as she could, I never expected them to return."

"But they did," Alan mutter.

"Laura was looking for something," the sheriff mentioned, "Derek was just looking for his sister, and found a body instead, it's not right."

No, it wasn't. Not only because the gravity of the situation, but because it was not possible. Alan has having problems to keep himself in check, his mind wondering in between different scenarios. Was it true, that Derek was alive? It couldn't be. Was someone pretending to be him? It seemed plausible but unlikely, as it wouldn't have fooled Laura for so long.

"So, Derek Hale," Alan mentioned, "He's staying in town?"

The sheriff nodded, "Required by the law, I don't believe he had anything to do with it, but it's part of the investigation protocol."

"I understand."

The sheriff collected the pictures, "Thank you for looking at these."

Alan nodded, "I wish I could be of more help."

The Sheriff smiled and with that they continue with the visit to take the stitches of the police dog out. While doing so, Scott was looking worse of wear, distracted and giving the Sheriff not subtle glances. Alan let it slide for the moment, they had other matters at hand after all.

It would have been a simple day after that, if not for Scott constantly asking about wolf habits, how they work in groups, but more importantly how they attack, what set them off and if it possible for them to attack just because.

Scott was asking him about werewolves.

Alan sighed to himself. It was very possible that Scott or someone close to Scott – most likely Stiles – was a werewolf, because Laura was killed, and whoever killed her was an alpha now. Not to mention that someone claiming to be Derek Hale was back in Beacon Hills, and people were being attacked by a creature that most likely was not a mountain lion.

The Hale fire was never going to be a distant memory, and Alan perhaps made a mistake in wallow in his failure six years ago instead of doing something about it.

He was not going to make the same mistake again.

***

One of the few subjects Alan disagreed with Talia, was in her need to keep her children unaware of many things until strictly necessary. She has a good mother, Alan never denied that, and the pack mentality meant that everyone in the Hale pack was more than willing to help her raise her children.

The lack of a husband was never a problem to her.

Talia had practically raised her brother Peter, and he seemed to be doing something of the sorts in return, helping her raise her children. What Alan couldn't understand was Talia's treatment of her own children, especially Derek. He had an idea, after all Talia was a respected alpha, but she had enemies, so being protective was not exactly strange.

In the pack is was expected for her to train her eldest to follow her steps, and her youngest to be a voice between the pack. Her middle child was another story.

Talia loved Derek, Alan had no doubt about it. But for some reason, sometimes Alan got the impression Talia was waiting for her only son to be taken from her in any minute, she never said so, but for a while it was as if she was preparing herself for such thing to happen.

Of course, when Alan asked her about, she just smiled at him and never gave an answer.

He heard rumors, and investigated some of them, but never took them for more than that, rumors. Alan sometimes wonders, if he had paid more attention to Talia's heritage and not just to Talia herself, could he have seen Kate Argent coming? It was clear now, that a family of hunters moving to town in such secrecy couldn't have good intentions.

There were nights when he dreams of running in the woods only to stumble with Kate Argent holding a bloodied and bruises Derek Hale, forcing him to look at his house in flames and listening to the screams, the inferno, to finally laugh end the agony by shooting him in the head, leaving the scene before the police arrived.

He remembered holding a dying Derek, asking, _begging_ him to hold on, to no avail. The younger wolf didn't make it, slowly dying with tears mixing with blood.

And now there was a young man, a kid, with the same name walking the streets, and Alan had to be sure, he had to make sure this was no impostor, and if it was, end it, for there couldn't be anyone soiling that memory, he wouldn't allow it.

He was planning on finding Derek, of whomever has using his name. He wasn't expecting to find him in a dusty gas station, being threaten by Chris Argent and his men, as if they haven't done enough damage to the Hales. 

The younger man looked like Derek Hale, or what Derek could have been. He carried the same eyes, the same expression, although there was far more rage behind them, and much more sorrow.

And he wasn't alone.

Alan couldn't quiet _see_ what was following Derek, but there was something there. It was as if a presence had attached themselves to the younger man, occupying the same space, but in different planes, a sort of spirit.

Such forces leave a resonance in the world around them, not everyone can see them and Alan was lacking practice after six years, but he was almost sure that the young man was indeed Derek, and the same time he could tell he was not the same boy he saw die, not completely anyway.

"Would you mind calling the cops?" Alan asked the man behind the cash register, "I believe that young man just got his car vandalized." 

The man looked quickly over the window to see the SUVs puling away from the station and Derek just standing there looking at his car in distaste.

"Ah crap," the cashier said, "And such a nice car, what a shame."

"Indeed."

Alan made his way towards the car, and Derek noticed him a few second later. He gave him a wary look, and Alan didn't take it personally, he had just been threatened by hunters, and that was never a pleasant experience, especially not to young wolves.

"Derek," he said with certainty, "Derek Hale, isn't it?"

Derek still didn't move or said a word. He looked tired and if Alan was being critical, weak.

"Who are you?" he asked after a moment with a surprisingly amount of heat for someone who looked like he could be knocked over by the wind, "What do you want?"

"My name is Alan Deaton," he introduced himself, "I'm sorry about your loss."

Laura, just a few days ago, and the rest of his family, six years in the pass.

Derek avoided looking at him directly, in fact he was looking behind Alan, although he made a good job to keep his eye level accurate enough to not be suspicious. Derek blinked a couple times, holding his side casually, and finally turned away from Deaton's gaze.

"I… my sister told me about you," he said, "kind of."

Alan nodded, "She came to visit, I was not able to help her a lot, I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Derek he said levelly and after an awkward pause he reluctantly added, "Thanks anyway."

Alan nodded but said nothing more, at least not until Derek seemed to be ready to leave, "Here they are."

"What?" Derek asked.

Alan pointed towards the upcoming county police cruise, that just happened to have Sheriff Stilinski himself, probably deciding to be the one coming as there were not many black Camaros in Beacon Hills after all. He turned his attention back to Derek, who was still holding his side and was looking at the Sheriff walking towards him with a bitter expression.

"What happened, Derek?" the Sheriff asked immediately, but Derek looked away.

"Nothing, I pissed off a guy," he said as if was no big deal, but Alan was having none of that.

"I saw a group of men boxing his car in the station," Alan indicated, "They were talking for a bit, and afterwards one came with a crowbar and smashed the driver's window, there should be footage of it," he indicated towards around the station, were security cameras were most likely present.

Derek was glaring at him but Alan just smiled calmly, this seemed to frustrate the young man even more but answered the Sheriff's questions regarding the indecent anyway, no matter how unpleasant the whole situation seemed to be for him.

It took nearly an hour, but there was a police report regarding the incident, accompanied by witnesses and the camera footage of the station. Derek might look like he swallowed something nasty, but Alan was not going to let things go that easily.

If Alan had learnt something over the years, was to not underestimate the help people in the side of law, specially people with their heart in the right place, like Sheriff Stilinski, could offer.

***

"You are hurt."

After the report was done and Derek's car was taken for the window to be repaired, Alan offered him a ride to the hotel he was staying at. Derek reluctantly agreed, only after refusing a couple of times and then changing his mind, probably having a silent conversation with whatever he was seeing that Alan could not.

The presence around Derek were subtly, probably with the help of something more than mere instinct, Alan would be able to actually see what was following the younger man. He was going to investigate more about it later.

"It's nothing," Derek mumbled, not looking at him from the passenger seat.

Alan's eyes were fixed on the road, but he was noting the details around Derek carefully. So far, he had noted that the younger man would advert his eyes sometimes, discreet enough that nobody who was not excruciatingly observing him like Alan was wouldn't notice.

"Did the hunters attacked you?"

He was blunt and it caused a reaction. He noticed the temperature drop a little around them in the car, only to shift back to normal when Alan casually adjusted the A/C, leaving an opportunity for Derek to keep whatever he was doing under control. The younger man looked at him in a mixture of wariness, anger and fear.

"Excuse me?"

Alan pointed towards him, "I can see the bandages under your shirt, but for you to take long to heal, it was to be recent or—" Deaton frowned, "Made by an alpha."

Derek showed his claws, pretense be dammed, "how do you know that?"

"Believe or not, your family used to be a pretty important part of my life, Derek," he said evenly, but he was far from calm, looking at Derek was like looking at his failures in the face, "Did you sister ever mentioned that?"

Derek glanced quickly at the rearview mirror then back at Alan, "A couple times… something about a kind of advisor mom used to have."

"That was me," he confirmed. "I tried to help Laura, after… but she left in a haste."

And he didn't mention helping Derek because at the time he thought Laura was the sole survivor of Talia's children, having seen Derek's murder himself. Now, it put what he saw into question, because Derek was sitting besides him, that much was true, yet he was not the same.

"We…" Derek closed his eyes, "We were being hunted, it wasn't safe… staying here… I wanted to stay, for Peter, but… it wasn't safe."

Alan didn't judge him, if the Sheriff was correct about the mental state Derek had been at the time, the younger man had little to no will to fight. If his suspicious were correct, Derek was in no state to even think properly, so Laura made the hard choices, and fleeing seemed reasonable when you were outnumbered and injured.

He didn't blame Laura for fleeing, but he did blame himself for not helping.

"But something brought you back," Alan said, "Your sister."

Derek looked pained, "Laura is gone."

The car felt cold again and Alan tried very hard to pretend he had no noticed in favor to not startle Derek. There was a lot of things he wanted to ask him, but this was not the correct moment. Instead he nodded and one again gave him a sympathetic look that Derek ignored.

"When she came to see me," Alan began, "She asked about a picture, a dead deer with a spiral carved onto its body… you know what that symbols means," Derek nodded, "But she was attacked… there's a new alpha… and the Argents are back."

"Do you think they want to finish what they started?" Derek asked with no pretense of Deaton not knowing what he was talking about, "Finish us off?"

"It is possible."

Derek grunted and said no more.

They arrived to the extended stay hotel Derek was staying and Alan was no surprised to see Scott and Stiles waiting at the stairs. Both looked like deer caught in the headlights and Derek glared at them with the intensity of someone containing himself from physical violence, but it was short lived, Derek held his side again, hissing in pain, and Stiles was there a moment later.

"Not okay yet?" Stiles asked, worried, and Derek confirmed hits by small shake of his head. What stood out to Alan, however, was the fact that the young werewolf was even letting Stiles close.

For a moment, Alan believed Stiles was the new werewolf in the equation, but that was dismissed the moment Scott growled low in his throat, caching himself in the last second to no avail. Alan stared at him with a raised eyebrow and Scott flushed in embarrassment.

"Heeeey Doc Deaton," Stiles tried to smooth things over, "What brings you here? Derek doesn't have pets."

Stiles usher Derek towards the open stairs of the motel, they looked wet and smelled of bleach, while Stiles' jeans spotted some splatter discoloration. Alan filed that one for later too, right now he needed to check on Derek.

"I believe you need to give some explanations," Alan said to the three of them, "And Derek needs to have those bandages changed."

Stiles almost chocked, looked self-conscious, and Derek lightly patted him on the back, "You did good, it's ok."

Alan shifted his attention towards Scott, who just looked ready to run, "I can explain."

"Not likely without trying to hide the truth from me," Alan commented, "But we will manage."

***

Derek had claw marks around his neck and chin – those apparently weren't as deep as the mess of torn flesh on his stomach – so those were healing nicely and will probably fade by the next day. The wounds on his abdomen were other story, they are healing, Deaton could confirm that, but because they were deep and made by the claws of an alpha, they were taking more time to close and heal than other wounds would.

Alan looked at his reluctant patience in the eye and Derek didn't held his gaze, choosing to look towards the window instead while Stiles fussed with the towels and blankets, commenting on how he had to basically throw the others away and did they thought the hotel would notice?

"No infection," Alan pointed out, "Not that I expected you to catch one but—"

Derek shrugs, "He didn't use wolfsbane or mistletoe, it's just… claws and fangs."

Scott was glaring at Derek the whole time and Alan, being a patient man, pretended his employee was not doing so, because it was strange to say the least, Scott was usually a mellow kid. Alan glanced between Derek and Scott and sighed, of course Scott was not just a regular kid anymore and his new instincts were messing with his head.

"What is it Scott?"

The younger wolf huffed, "Why are you helping him? He killed that bus driver, in the hospital—"

"I did _not_ ," Derek hissed angrily, "He just died Scott, it happens."

"You're lying—"

"I'm not!"

"He isn't!" Stiles interrupted, "Scott, he didn't attack that man, he was here bleeding in the damn sheets," he used both hands to gesture at the bed, "While I cleaned the very obvious trail of blood outside, and inside, and later in the parking lot… because he was _also_ attacked by the alpha, we discussed this before Scott."

"No, you said you were late to class because Derek, but didn't explain exactly _why_ ," Scott hissed, Alan resisted the urge to sigh.

"No, you were busy panicking about attacking Alisson, witch you didn't, and then the buss driver, witch you probably didn't do as well!" Scott looked between Derek and Alan, then Stiles with a resigned expression, close to crying. "No, no Scotty, you did not."

"But I did…" he mumbled, "I remember the bus, and the driver… and there was someone else there as well, the alpha?" Scott asked, unsure, "But the buss driver said Hale in the hospital, and I know you were there Derek, and now the man is dead!"

"I did saw him," Derek admitted, "But I didn't _kill_ him, he just kept apologizing, not making sense, so I left."

Scott growled high in his throat, his eyes flashing, and moved to slash at Derek, but Alan stood between them. The change was immediate, Scott deflated, his fangs retracting as well as his claws, he blinked in confusion and then flushed deep red in embarrassment. Stiles was at his side immediately, trying to conform his best friend in what must have been a moment of realization of what he was about to do, and of course it was not well received.

"I hate this," Scott whined, and Alan could sympathize, the teen had no idea how to keep in check what was going on, "I just…"

Derek sighed loudly, almost growling, "You just need to learn _control_ , it's not the end of the world!"

"Gentlemen," Alan called loudly, although they were acting anything but, "Focus."

He turned to Derek, "You need to recover, so we can see about the alpha," without waiting for an answer he turned towards Scott, "You need to try and keep yourself calm, until Derek and I can help you train so you don't lose control over your newfound abilities, especially with the full moon coming."

He shifted his gaze towards Stiles, "I take you are not a werewolf?"

"Nope, all fragile bones and sarcasm, 100% human," Stiles confirmed, making Derek chuckle.

"That's good," Alan nodded, "I might need your assistance if you're willing."

"With what?" Stiles raised an eyebrow, "I can't do anything."

"That's where you're are wrong, Stiles, there's many ways to help, and you don't have to be a creature that goes bump in the night to do so," he smiled and made a vague motion towards himself, prompting a soft 'oh' from Stiles.

Derek was not looking at them anymore, his eyes were fixed towards the window, and that would have not raised any suspicion if Alan was not looking for _something_ , so with Derek staring at the window with the curtains mostly closed, he managed to see a quick reflection of _something_ there, in the corner of his eyes, just before the curtain softly cover the tiny remain of the window with a cool breeze that could be blamed to the air conditioned.

There was no doubt that whatever something Alan had been looking for was indeed there, but the questions of what exactly it was still remain.

***

He sent Scott and Stiles on their way back to their respective houses. It was late and the teen should be with their parents, there was a curfew in place due the recent events and it wasn't safe for them to be wandering the night as they have been doing so. that much was obvious. For good measure, he called both Stiles' father and Scott's mother to let them know they had been in the animal clinic and they were on their way home, much to the charging of Stiles, Scott looked a little off put but not as much as his best friend.

Alan remained in the hotel room with Derek, who barely spoke three words to him since then.

Due his rough appearance and stoic attitude, it was hard to tell that Derek was barely in his early twenties, having recently turned twenty-one years old if Alan remembered correctly. But with the events that had defined his life, he wasn't surprised if Derek had felt the need to show he had grown up faster.

But there was so much more than that. Alan was still not certain this was the same Derek he saw as a child, the same kid Talia protected and loved with all her heart but at the same time kept away from everyone. The same kid who went missing for days, only to return with a broken heart and bright electric blue eyes.

The dead of that young girl had been a tragedy, one that profoundly affected Derek. And if Alan's memory served him right, it was after this that event Talia started acting different regarding her son, as if preparing herself to lose him.

Alan couldn't decide what to do. He felt the need to help this young man, as he promised his mother, but he was not sure this was the same Derek he remembered, not when he saw him getting murder six years ago.

Being direct was not going to work in this situation, so he waited until Derek was asleep to collect what he needed. Some hair, and the blood in the bandages. He was not going to hurt him if it wasn't necessary, not until he was sure of what he was dealing with.

He owned Talia that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel that Deaton's main problem is the multiple retcons his character got over the course of S2 and S3, so I plan to use those retcons in a more coherent way in this story. I don't dislike his character really, just how it has, well, retcon with little sense of his previous actions. 
> 
> [Tumblr](http://springbehere.tumblr.com) my dears, wanna come over?


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